The Cheyenne Outbreak

Every January the Northern Cheyenne answer this plaque with their feet. Phillip Whiteman Jr. began the Fort Robinson Outbreak Spiritual Run in 1996 as a 76-mile run around the reservation. Since 1999 it has started here: runners break out of the rebuilt barracks at the hour of the 1879 escape, then relay about 400 miles north through Pine Ridge and the Black Hills to Busby and Lame Deer, Montana, two lead runners carrying the Northern Cheyenne flag and an eagle staff. It has become a rite of passage for young runners, and its sponsors say it addresses historical trauma.

What the plaque says

The Cheyenne Outbreak On September 9, 1878, after a year of suffering on an Oklahoma reservation, some 300 Northern Cheyenne Indians began a trek back to their homeland. Dull Knife's band of 149 Indians were captured and taken to Fort Robinson. For months they refused to return to their hated reservation. Captain Wessels, Commanding Officer at Fort Robinson, imprisoned the Indians in a log barracks and attempted to starve them into submission. Using the few weapons they had smuggled into the building, the younger warriors began the Cheyenne Outbreak about 9:00 p.m., January 9, 1879. After a desperate running battle on the snow-covered parade ground, the Indians managed to follow the banks of the White River, scale the cliffs and escape. Unable to find horses, the Cheyenne eluded pursuing troops for 12 days by heading northwest through the rough terrain of the Pine Ridge. Soldiers discovered their hiding place on Antelope Creek January 22, but the Indians refused to surrender. During the outbreak, 64 Cheyenne and 11 soldiers were killed. More than 70 were recaptured and several escaped. The number of casualties made the Cheyenne Outbreak one of the major conflicts of the Indian Wars. Crawford Historical Society Historical Land Mark Council

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Robinson State Park — 1.9 mi
  The army post beside the Red Cloud Agency where Crazy Horse was bayoneted in 1877 and Morning Star's Northern Cheyenne broke out into the January cold of 1879.
• Toadstool Geologic Park — 15 mi
  A pocket of badlands in the Oglala National Grassland where sandstone caps balance on clay stems, ancient tracks cross the rock, and a trail leads on to a 10,000-year-old bison bone bed.
• Agate Fossil Beds National Monument — 20 mi
  A fossil quarry on the Niobrara that also keeps the gifts Red Cloud and other Lakota and Cheyenne visitors gave the ranching family who were their friends for thirty-five years.

More markers nearby

• Fighting in the Buttes — 1.7 mi
• The Fort Robinson Cemetery — 1.7 mi
• Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Robinson — 1.7 mi
• Fort Robinson — 1.8 mi